Is It True
by Slambodog
Summary: Companion story to Comfort. I actually started this story two years ago at Star Wars Celebration V, but I didn't get back to it until now. One-shot story about what happens when Ben asks for more details of Luke and Leia's relationship, set around the time of the events of FOTJ: Abyss. Ben/Jaina in flashback.


"Dad," Ben finally blurted out, "Is it true what Uncle Han said?"

"Probably not," Luke answered with the twinkle is his blue eyes that had made him the heartthrob of trillions of females in the past 40 years. Ben knew he had his father's good looks, and it had come in handy on countless missions. "Old habits die hard," his father continued, "but what did he say?"

"About you and Aunt Leia." The twinkle in Luke's eyes suddenly dimmed, but Ben continued, "He said that you and Leia used to be, you know, a couple." With that last word, the twinkle instantly vanished, and Ben was shocked to feel in the Force a sudden sense of what seemed to be longing. He started to reprimand himself for interpreting that longing as anything other than family ties. After all, they had been in exile for almost a year now.

However, the response from his father was anything other than the curt denial Ben had expected. Instead, Luke answered in a measured tone, "Your uncle was not lying to you, but it wasn't that simple, either. We were too busy fighting the Empire for any kind of romance to develop"

It was only Ben's years of Jedi training and inordinate experience that stopped him from collapsing in shock. "Dad, all Uncle Han said was that you kissed Aunt Leia on Echo Base," the young Jedi continued, "I was just trying to avoid being so explicit."

"Are you sure want to hear all about this?" The recently deposed Grand Master of the Jedi Order looked more anguished than his son had seen him in over two years. Considering all that had happened in the past few months, this shook Ben to his very core. However, he was starting to grow tired of his father's over protectiveness.

Before Ben could answer, he suddenly remembered where he was and that this was his mother's ship. Even after three years, the wounds of his mother's death were still fresh. He realized that his father was simply shielding him from having to think about the fact that his parents had both had been romantic with other beings before they fell in love with each other. It no longer seemed important or even relevant that Luke and Leia were siblings.

No one would call Ben Skywalker weak or squeamish. He had endured more pain in his short sixteen years than most people, even most Jedi, would endure in their entire lifetimes. He had wanted to ask his father this question for years now, ever since his uncle had brought it up. During the most recent civil war, they had served on opposite sides, until Luke had rescued him from the clutches of Ben's cousin, Jacen. Actually, the man who was dragging him down the path of the dark side was no longer Jacen Solo; it was the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Caedus. After that, he was not alone with his father more than a few minutes, so Ben had no chance to ask his father about it.

During the two years of relative peace between the end of the war and the Skywalkers' exile from Coruscant, the time just never seemed right. Ben now realized, aboard his mother's ship, that he simply didn't want the time to be right, the grief from his mother's death too all-consuming. However, Ben steeled himself, he had waited long enough, and now he had to know.

"Yes, Dad," Ben said hesitantly, "I think I need to know."

"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning," Luke started wistfully. "I grew up on Tatooine, a desolate, barren planet. There was nothing to do there. Sure, there'd be an occasional party or dance up at Anchorhead, but none of the girls ever noticed me." Ben found that hard to believe about the man who was voted last year _The Galactic Alliance's Most Eligible Bachelor_ and who had more top ten appearances on _Beings_ list of _Most Beautiful Men_ than he had fingers.

Luke must have sensed his son's doubt, so he said simply, "I was not always the confident, tall-standing Jedi most people see me as now. Back on Tattooine, I was a nobody, a joke. I had a few friends, and you've heard of Tank, Hobbie, and Biggs, but I never told you about Camie and Fixer. They were a couple, wound up getting married, but she'd tease me mercilessy, calling me Wormie. Worst of all, she knew I was in love with her, and she – Well, are you really sure you're ready to hear this?" Ben nodded, so his father continued, "She was beyond cruel to me. When Fixer was out of town, Camie would make me her slave. I would have to do her nails, fix her hair, wash her dishes, whatever chores she had around the house. I was so in love with her that I couldn't protest, and it progressed. Soon enough, she had me preforming more, uh, intimate tasks for her."

Luke paused there, and Ben suddenly thought of all the nights he had spent with his cousin Jaina Solo. While Jaina was in no way cruel to him, he idolized her beyond belief. After the tragic deaths of his other two cousins, she was the closest thing he had to a friend. When they were much younger, before the Dark Nest crisis, before Jacen's five year journey, the three of them had been unimaginably close. The twins were truly each one half of the other, and they were very welcoming to Ben. Whenever he had a nightmare, which were frequent for him at that time, Jaina would always welcome him into her bed. She would hold him until he fell asleep, which would be very quick. After all, how could nightmares hurt him, when he was wrapped up tightly in the arms of the Sword of the Jedi?

As Ben grew older, his cousins had taught him all about women and sex, complete with anatomy demonstrations and visuals from Jaina. Jacen had always stiffened when Jaina undressed in front of him, which confused Ben to no end. They were twins, hadn't they seen each other naked hundreds of times? Wasn't it no different than seeing themselves in the mirror? He never dwelled on it because his mind would always become filled with a whole host of emotions, feelings, and thoughts that he could not explain either. Jaina would always calm him down, sending soothing feelings through the Force and explaining that whatever he felt or thought was completely normal. A few times, Jacen would just abruptly turn around and leave, slamming the door with a very cold wave.

Ben had come to understand some of the feelings he felt, and he stopped going into Jaina's room when he was scared. Instead, he'd often visit with Jacen, who would always be more than willing to talk about whatever problem Ben had, at any hour of the night. When he couldn't find Jacen, or if Ben wanted some solitude, he would simply meditate, which would almost always calm him down. If all else failed, he would go to the cafeteria; being a typical teenage boy, he was always hungry. After Jacen's tragic death, Jaina was the one who started having the nightmares, and she'd often come visit Ben.

"Whenever I protested, Camie would just threaten to tell Fixer what we had been doing." The sound of his father's voice brought Ben back to the present. "Obviously, Fixer would never believe that she forced me to do any of it, so I had no choice. Or, so I thought. One time, he came home from a trip earlier than Camie expected. When I heard his speeder come to a stop, I knew I was kriffed, since my dilapidated landspeeder was in plain sight. Sure enough, Fixer came rushing in with his blaster fully loaded. I tried to hide behind Camie, but he quickly shoved her out of the way. The next sound I heard scared me more than anything: he started laughing. 'Wormie?' Fixer asked, almost shocked, 'is that really you?' Fortunately, he put his blaster away, but what he said next hurt more than any beating he might have delivered. 'And here I thought she was getting it on with a real man, someone who might actually try and take her away from me.' Camie joined Fixer in laughing, as he said, 'I bet she's not even taking care of you, just using you like a vibrotoy to get what she needs. Well, you're a real man now. C'mon I'm taking you to Chalmun's for a drink. And, I mean a real drink, no more blue milk for you.' I then realized that her threats had been empty, she had no intention of telling on me to Fixer. It was just one more way that she was using me to get what she wanted. Camie got tired of me almost immediately after that. She stopped the intimate stuff right away, and the chores a couple of days later. It would be many years later until I first kissed a woman. Camie never let me kiss her, I wasn't worthy of that honor."

"So, who was it? Who was your first kiss? Was it Aunt Leia like Uncle Han said?"

"You can't just let me finish my story? Fine, there's really not much left in the story, anyway, just the boring parts you already know about how we destroyed the Death Star. Aunt Leia and I actually kissed five times before we found out we were brother and sister. I remember each and every one of them, and Leia initiated them all. She actually was going to kiss me again after I found out, before I had a chance to tell her. I was in love with her, in every sense of the word. It wasn't wrong, Ben, it was just misplaced. I had strong feelings of attachment and connection to her, and it just took me a while to understand those feelings."

"When did you realize you weren't in love with her?"

"Ben, I'm still in love with her. Other than you and your mother when she was alive, Leia is the most important person in my life. I see that's not the answer you wanted. I guess I could say that I no longer wanted a romance with Leia after I started my Jedi training. I was trained by Jedi of the old tradition. No attachments, no marriage, no children. At that time, my training was the most important thing in my life to me, other than my friends. You know as well as I do how Vader used my friends to cut my training short and try to turn me to the dark side. Once Han was frozen in carbonite, Leia feared him dead, so she tried to start a romance with me. It was the first time a woman had ever been romantically interested in me, even though I knew it was misplaced."

"So, what happened? Is that when you two hooked up?"

"That's another story, for another time. Now, how about you? Maybe the reason you are so interested in what happened between me and my sister is because you are in love with your cousin?"

Ben had no response. How could his father have known that?

"Did you really think you could hide from your father, the former Grand Master of the Jedi, and the founder of the New Jedi Order, the fact that you are in love with your own cousin, the Sword of the Jedi?"

"Who else knows?"

"Aunt Leia definitely does. Mom probably knew. I think Jacen did."

"Uncle Han?"

"I doubt it, he tends to be oblivious to that kind of stuff, and there's no way Aunt Leia would have told him."

"Jaina?"

"Ben, I'm sure she knew even before you knew yourself. She is the Sword of the Jedi. Now, maybe you want to tell me what went on between the two of you? Perhaps one night on Endor?"

How could Luke have known about that? Jaina swore she would not tell anyone, the only way Luke could have known was if he flow-walked. Then, Ben remembered that Luke had been using flow-walking around that time to track Jacen and throw him off his game. Was it possible that Luke had been sitting in that room when he was flow-walking, and so he saw what occurred between Ben and his cousin?

"Flow-walking?"

Luke nodded.

Ben thought back for a few minutes on the rest of that night that his cousin taught him how to please a woman before he realized that Luke was still staring at him, waiting his answer. "Sorry, Dad, don't want to talk about it, even if she wasn't my cousin. It just feels weird talking to you about my sex life."

"Okay, son, but you need to understand that what you felt was normal. Jaina is a beautiful, intelligent, and confident woman, and she is one of the most powerful Jedi in the Order. It is perfectly understandable for you to have all sorts of feelings about her, and the worst thing that could happen to you is if you feel guilty about it. You were just starting to learn about your body then, so you had no reason to do anything other than what Jaina told you to do. Just because she is your cousin doesn't make your feelings any less real for her. That said, she should have been more responsible, and I talked to her about that."

Ben could not help but feeling a little disappointed, but at least he now knew why they didn't do that again. He had been afraid that he had done or said something wrong, but those fears were now assuaged.

"Was it wrong what we did?"

"I can't answer that for you. If it is something that you feel bad about it, then, yes. If it is a happy memory of something nice that your cousin did for you, and you can look back on it fondly with no regrets, then you didn't do anything wrong."

Ben hesitated before he spoke. There would be no going back on this now.

"I still sometimes think about her when, I, you know."

Luke paused for a minute.

"Do you ever feel guilty about it?"

"Never."

"A fantasy in and of itself can never be a bad thing. In fact, it is almost always a healthy thing, but, when you start to feel guilty about your thoughts, then it becomes unhealthy. If it is bothering you, though, you should talk to Jaina about it."

"I couldn't. How do I go up to my cousin and tell her that I think about her like that?"

"Trust me, it would make her feel very good about herself. She loves you more than almost anyone in the galaxy, and she would do anything for you. I think she proved that to you that night on Endor. Jaina is the most important woman in your life right now, and you need to have this conversation with her. As soon as we see her again, promise me that, okay?"

Ben knew better than to defy his father on this. As the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, Luke was considered the wisest man in the galaxy. There was no arguing with his advice, especially when it was founded on personal experience.

"I promise. Wait, does that mean you used to think about Aunt Leia that way?"

The answer Ben received shocked him to his very core.

"I still do."

Ben had no response for that.

"From the time that I first saw her until well after the Emperor's death, she was the only woman I ever thought of that way. Ben, I've been lucky enough to have fallen in love with four different women, and I got to marry one of them. Mara will always hold a special place in my heart, not least because she gave me you, but Leia was always the true love of my life. Just because I realized a romance with her could never work out didn't make me any less attracted to her, nor did finding out she was my sister."

"Does she know about it?"

"There is nothing about me that Leia doesn't know, and whatever I didn't tell her, Mara was always quick to."

"Mom knew?!"

"Ben, are you sure you want to hear about all this."

"No, but tell me anyway."

"Okay. Mara thought it was incredible turn-on. She used to tease me about… Are you really sure you want me to tell you all this? I know that I would have been totally crept out if Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru talked about this with me. If you just want to hear this because you won't think you are weird if your father did even weirder things, I already told you not to worry."

Ben was satisfied with that answer, and he let out a very loud belch, which broke all the tension on the ship. They both laughed uncontrollably for about five minutes before Luke announced, "Set the course for Sinkhole Station."


End file.
